Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1887-11-17
You quite wellr

you quite weir
@Yes; slept well all night"
II thought heard You up very early"
II have for long time wanted TO put my
fathers papers in order; you know how they
were thrown into the closet and your desk.
That reminds me, ! found q photograph
among those papers with three dates written
across the back, by you if / am not mis-
taken.n
And he handed her Roger Laroque's photo
graph. The effect was stunning Pale as
death itself Julia had hardly time to reach
chair before she sank down without strength
TO move. At the first glance she had known
Rogers face, and the card fell UNDECIDED to
the floor, and she looked at Raymond more
like a hunted animal than human being.
IN vain she tried TO regain her GOODNESS and
surmount the horror which this sudden re-
turn Of a ghost Of the awful past rose up be-
fore her. Her horror, her fear and the ner-
vous shock were too much, and she abandoned
herself completely to her emotion.
"Motherl motherl" cried Raymond, not
less agitated than she. His terrible suspicious
returned more pressing, more convincing. 1t
seemed to him as if the heavens were crum-
bling about him and there was no solid foun-
dation to the earth. There was but a bound
less and bottomless space about him, where
we're engulfed all his beliefs, his hopes and
his plans. And his mother said no word. He
had reached stage where he would have
even welcomed transparent lie, so much he
wanted to be treasured. At last she under
stood what was passing in her best loved
sons soul, and she tried TO smile.
This heat has overcome me-"
He went and opened the windows, letting
in tho cool breath Of 1,lotr,ipor which eaa,uad
to relieve her little.
"What were you saying just now about
Photographic
He picked it up and gave it TO her. This
time she looked at it and said:
"Oh, yes. How could this have got lost
therel 1t is that of an old friend of our
family who married a cousin of mine. Those
dates. Yes, they were lis marriage, the &C
cidental death of his bride in two days and of
his having become insane about two weeks
later. He died soon after, too, believe"
Raymond breathed again. This seemed
a reasonable story, and if it were truo one
all his suspicious fell to the ground. He took
the photograph from her hand which still
trembled, and placed it in an album AS he
did SO, he remarked:
1T is curious that the picture seems to be
pierced by knife there by the side of the
heart. Do you notice It'll"
''It has likely been pushed against a nail in
moving said she
When Raymond had gone, Julia sat for
hours with her eyes fixed upon the album.
Tho portrait seemed to draw her invincibly,
and at last she rose and, apparently thinking
with its destruction she could chase away the
hostly thoughts that crowded in her mind,
she removed it and burned 1t to cinders, which
she scattered to the four winds
Fifteen days later Raymond returned to
Meridon. ard almost his first movement was
to look in the album. Tie photograph was
gone.
why" said he. surprised, sit is not there I"
what, my sonp
1.-THE photograph"
"Ah, yes. 1t awoke sad remembrances,
so burned it."
Raymond felt his doubts and fears return